Chili chicken (Or tofu/paneer chili)

Preparation time: 20 minutes | Difficulty: Moderate

Having grown up in India, Indian-Chinese food is one of my all-time favorites. Being devoid of this cuisine in India, my Mum once told me this recipe to satiate my Chili-Chicken/Manchurian cravings. Since then, it became an absolute favorite of mine, so much that I thought it was necessary to share it :)

Ingredients:

500g boneless chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
(For vegetarian options, substitute with cubes of paneer/tofu and skip to step 5.)

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. sugar

salt to taste

oil for frying

4 chopped green chilies (thai chilies)

1/2 cup diced yellow onion

1/2 cup diced bell peppers (capsicum)

1/2 tsp. crushed black pepper

1 1/2 cup chicken broth

1 tbsp. corn flour

1/2 cup chopped scallions (green onions, spring onions)

1/4 cup chopped cilantro (coriander)

For the batter

1 large egg

1 tbsp. corn flour

1/2 tsp. red chili powder

Method:

1. Beat the egg and add 1 tbsp. corn flour, spoon-by-spoon, dissolving any lumps. Add the red chilli powder and mix well. Add the chicken pieces in this batter to completely cover them.
2. Take some oil in a deep non-stick frying pan or wok (kadhai works best). When the oil is sufficiently hot, fry the batter-covered chicken pieces in small batches, until golden brown.
3. Remove the fried chicken pieces on a tissue paper to drain off excess oil.
4. Once the deep-frying is done, throw out all of the oil. In another frying pan (or the same wok) take about 2 tbsp. fresh oil and heat it.
5. Shallow fry the diced onions and bell peppers in the oil for about 1 minute. Scoop these out draining the oil and put them on the tissue paper with the chicken.
6. In the oil remaining in the wok, fry the garlic and green chillies for about 10 seconds.
7. Add the chicken broth, soy sauce, sugar and black pepper powder
8. Dissolve the corn flour in a spoonful of water to break any lumps and add this to the broth, simmering it for about 2 minutes.
9. Add the chicken, onions and bell peppers and salt if necessary and bring to a boil. garnish with scallions and cilantro.

Serve hot with rice or bread.

 Helpful Tips:

• Wait till the end to add the salt as the soy sauce may make the chicken salty
• It is ideal to chop the garlic, but in its absence, garlic paste would be okay
• For a vegetarian delight, you may substitute the chicken with paneer or extra-firm tofu. in this case, however, skip the batter-and-fry step and skip to step 5 directly as this will allow the paneer or tofu to soak up the sauce
• Although it is wasteful to throw away so much oil used for deep-frying, avoid reusing it as this oil has carcinogenic free radicals and can be potentially harmful.